‘Why Kano is building mega cities’

What have you done that recently earned your organisation the National Productivity Order of Merit Award?I think it is because of the facelift that we have given Kano in terms of infrastructures. A lot of things have changed in Kano when compared to what we were two years ago. If you recall, before 2012, there […]

What have you done that recently earned your organisation the National Productivity Order of Merit Award?
I think it is because of the facelift that we have given Kano in terms of infrastructures. A lot of things have changed in Kano when compared to what we were two years ago. If you recall, before 2012, there was serious decay of infrastructure in the state especially in roads and drainages. Before 2012, because of lack of drainages, there were cases of flood that killed a lot of people and destroyed many houses. But from 2012 to date, these things have been reduced to the barest minimum.
 My organisation, KANUPDA has been so much involved in the provision of some of these infrastructures especially roads and drainages. We also see that our main function which is planning…when we came in, we realised that the Government Reserved Area (GRA) in Nasarawa area is no more GRA. It’s just like the city. It’s now a carbon copy of the city because all those large land portions that beautified the area have been reduced into plots and allotted to individuals for residential buildings. It was against this background that the governor directed us to create new cities for the low and high income earners.
Following his directive, we created three cities, that is, Kwankwasiyya City along Zaria road, Amana City on the opposite and the Bandirawo City on the other part of the state. All are big towns created to serve the people of the state. Initially, we only created the areas but the governor afterwards asked us to go into building. Now, some houses in these cities have been completed. In Kwankwasiyya City, we built drainages, roads and a bridge that links the city with other areas. In Kwankwasiyya City, we have five-bed room and four-bed room flats that have been completed. People have applied for their purchase. The building of the houses is not my area. What we did was to select, plan and design places for the new cities.
In our efforts to give pedestrians unhindered access, we have interlocked all the major roads in the state metropolis. We’re doing interlocking because in planning, if you talk about motorists, you must also talk about other categories of road users. To this end, we have interlocked 65 roads in the city and the contracts for the remaining roads have been awarded. We have also considered contractors that were left by the previous administration. I think these are some of the things that earned us the National Productivity Order of Merit Award.

In these three new cities, how many houses are you building altogether?
Well, we’re building the cities to open up other areas and by so doing decongest the main Kano city. I cannot tell you the exact number of houses we’re building in these three cities because it’s under the supervision of the Housing Corporation of Kano State. We have about 500 plots there altogether. The Kwankwasiyya City is a GRA while the two others are mixture of buildings for low, medium and high income earners.

You talked about interlocking Kano roads. How much have you spent so far on this project?
 We have spent over N650 million on the interlocking project. We’re doing it not only for beautification but as I said earlier to provide road for pedestrians.

Have you any master plan in Kano?
Yes, we have but we’re going to review it. We had three or so. We had one in 1963 and we had the revised edition in 2003 but unfortunately, they did not follow them. The master plans were not implemented but this time around, we’re reviewing them. From all indications, the government is committed to it. The World Bank has sent in representatives to contribute, not financially but in the technical aspect. So we’re reviewing our master plan and we’re going to implement it fully in the interest of all.

Recently, parts of the state metropolis were badly affected by flood occasioned by lack of drainages. But you said you have overcome this challenge.
As I told earlier, if you’re here before 2011, you would appreciate what we have done so far. Then, there were many cases of death caused by flood and houses were destroyed. The flood you’re talking about was caused as a result of heavy downpour but we have succeeded to a very large extent in addressing the problem of lack or blocked drainages. Now, if there is rain, in less than an hour it will flow away unlike before our coming when rain water would not flow until after days because of lack of drainages.

How do you want Kano State to look like in terms of planning and infrastructure at the end of the tenure of this administration?
Honestly, we want it to be like Mecca and Medina; we want it to look like Dubai. In these two years of our administration, there have been a lot of changes. If you want to appreciate what we’re doing, come to Kano at night from either Abuja or Lagos by air and see. You’ll see light everywhere which can only be compared with what is obtainable in either Abuja or Lagos. So we want to see a city that is accommodating more people, providing more jobs as well maintaining its beauty. You can see now the traffic is moving.
 
Some blame the congestion on the concentration of people in few areas of the state metropolis. What would you say about that?
I’m a town planner. Believe me, you it depends on the way you see it. There are people who believe in diversification and to them the concentration of people in just eight local government areas that make up the state metropolis is not good.  They’re of the view that people should spread to all the 44 local government areas that make up the state. The concentration is not much as areas are still opening up across the state because of the new roads that we’re constructing. The focal point is Kano city and this is why we opened up all mega roads like Zaria and Hadejia roads among others.

Virtually everywhere in Kano metropolis, road construction is going on. How many roads are you constructing at the moment and how much are you spending on them?
Currently, we have about 10 roads going on apart from the five kilometer road going on in each of the 44 local government areas of the state. We inherited five of the mega roads from previous administration. We’re also doing five mega roads on our own which are three lanes each. We have achieved more than 70 percent completion on these roads and inshallah, even if we’re crawling, we’ll complete the remaining 30 percent before the expiration of our tenure.  Our target is December 2014. By then, all the mega projects we’re executing will be completed.

What is the cost of these roads?
The mega roads cost us about N32 billion. We are spending N5.1 billion on Zaria road, N2.7 billion on Hadejia road, N3 billion on Gwarzo road, N6.8 billion on Gundutse Terminus, N11.9 billion on Dawanau Terminus and N2.2 billion on Challawa road.

In most areas soak-aways are built outside houses. Is it part of the plan in the state?
 No, it is not. In all the building plans we approved, we always asked developers to build their soak-aways inside their houses but they don’t. We’re working in collaboration with the state Ministry of Environment which are in charge of sanitation to address this. Sanitary provisions must be inside house, not on the road.